New 'space race' hits turbulence

Vandenberg base is ready to soar, but for some it's all a big noise

- By Laurence Darmiento

ERIC THAYER Los Angeles Times

VANDENBERG Space Force Base aims to expand its number of launches and attract aerospace companies.

The rolling grasslands and rocky beaches of Vandenberg Space Force Base, home to more than a dozen at-risk species, easily could pass for a peaceful nature preserve — but that’s an illusion.

The nearly 100,000-acre base in Santa Barbara County was a testing ground in the 1960s for early-generation ballistic missiles, and today it’s a launch site for satellites, classified missions and other payloads key to a new type of war: one fought far above the Earth.

This new era has been marked by a sharp jump in flights from the military facility that started in 2021 when SpaceX began sending into orbit Starlink internet satellites the military considers critical for national security.

Now Vandenberg is aiming higher with its Space port of the Future initiative. The agency is making plans for a nearly $900-million makeover of the aging base with roads, buildings, launchpads and other facilities to handle an anticipated surge in launches.

Seventy-one rockets blasted off last year, most of them by SpaceX. One hundred or more could take off this year, possibly making it the busiest space port in the world.

“We're in the beginnings of the second space race. That’s what you're seeing,” said U.S. Space Force Col. James Horne III, base commander, whose office is decorated with nearly two dozen models of rockets flown from Vandenberg.

Not everyone is happy about the base's big plans.

While local development officials are eager to capitalize on the expansion, the blasts from the takeoffs and subsequent sonic booms experienced south of the base have stirred up controversy scaring wildlife, rattling nerves and sparking conflicts with environmentalists, state officials and residents for whom the first space race is a distant memory.